Opinion/Experience

Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got.

--- Janis Joplin

When we don’t know who we are, it’s easy to compromise ourselves. When we don’t know where we stand on an issue, it is easy to be swayed by a forceful voice. Values may be cloudy in our minds, or we may not be aware of them at all. It’s then that we are vulnerable to the persuasion of another. In this Twelve Step program, we are offered the way to know ourselves. We are supported in our efforts, and we realize we have friends who don’t want us to compromise ourselves --- who value our struggle to know and to be true to ourselves.

One of recovery’s greatest gifts is discovering we can make decisions that represent us, our inner selves, and those decisions please us. We all are familiar with the tiny tug of shame that locates itself in our solar plexus. When we “go along,” when we “give in” on a personally important issue, we pay a consequence. We lose a bit of ourselves. Over the years we’ve lost many bits. We have a choice, however.

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I will have a chance, soon, to act according to my wishes.

Each Day

A New Beginning,

 (Hazelden Publication)

Karen Casey

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When I express an opinion on any matter; spiritual, political, or even in matters as mundane as where can I get the best pizza, I am wise to consider first whether I am parroting someone else’s or have I experiences what I am talking about personally. Some things are, of course, articles of faith… tried and true throughout the ages. I can apply them to my life and see whether or not they work and, if they don’t, I can search for the answers as to why they don’t. Are they based on a false premise or have I taken a shortcut. I can always ask someone else who has seemed to make it work for themselves and judge from there where to go with it. I have found a confidence to admit when I am wrong and thus extend to others the right to be wrong. Because I have strong opinions on just about everything I can come off as belligerent… even bullying and certainly I don’t like it when others do that to me. In no way does this position cause me to compromise my beliefs and I become more apt to be able to choose my battles wisely.

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